The general topic chosen for the project is Materials Selection for Sustainability. During the brainstorming process of possible projects, many great ideas were come up with, and among them, urban vertical farming was agreed to be the most beneficial and effective project. The project on urban vertical farming involves plants selection, construction materials selection, mechanical design and construction. The product will reflect the theme of sustainability on at least three aspects: providing fresh oxygen, providing fresh food, and using the space in urban area more effectively.
Video 1. Living with the Land Greenhouse tour at Epcot, Walt Disney World
Growing plants is a widely adopted sustainable solution for providing cleaner air in urban area. Drexel University's very own Biowalls is one example. According to Dr. Russell's lecture, the Biowalls use the microbes of different plants to perform bio-filtration to eliminate the harmful Volatile Organic Compounds. Another is example is the Living with the Land Greenhouse at Epcot, Disney World, as shown in Video 1, where there are many revolutionary types of plants growing. By focusing on renewable farming techniques and applying best-practices in technology, the researchers and scientists that work at the Greenhouse have been able to dramatically increase crop yields in low-soil environments, engineering tomato plants that produce up to 35,000 tomatoes in 16 months, lettuce plants that produce tens of thousands of heads of lettuce [9].
The advantage of this project is that the product is designed to produce the most amount of food using the least amount of space while cleaning the air.
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